Monday, February 27, 2012

Strawberry Tart

We have been enjoying high 60’s to low 70’s weather here in CA even though it is still winter. I already see a lot of cheap strawberries at the supermarket shelves and they are pretty cheap. I paid only $1.78 a punnet and have been buying it every other day. The one I bought last week were not as sweet so I decided to use it to make tart. The tart turns out beautifully – the slight tartness of the strawberries compliments the pastry cream really well. Carlos said it is one of the best tart he ever eaten. I think he just said that to make me happy ha ha.....

1. Put flour, butter, sugar and salt into a food processor fitted with metal blade. Process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.
2. Then add in the egg yolk. With the motor running, add in the cold water in tiny trickles, until the pastry just hold together. Remove from the processor, press together into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for half an hour.
3. Grease a 9” tart pan with some butter. Roll out the pastry and line the tart pan. Prick the bottom with a fork four or five times. Rest the crust in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, before baking.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 375 degree F. Weight down the pie with some beans and blind bakes it until the edge of the crust is lightly brown. Remove the beans and continue to bake until golden brown. Remove from oven and let it cool down.

1. Pour the milk into a heavy saucepan. Add the salt, place over medium-high heat, and bring to just under a boil, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, whisk together the cornstarch and sugar. Add the eggs and whisk until smooth. When the milk is ready, slowly drizzle about 1/3 of the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking continuously.
3. Pour the egg-milk mixture back into the hot milk and continue whisking until the custard is as thick as lightly whipped cream, about 2 minutes. The mixture must come just to the boiling point.
4. Remove from heat and immediately pour through a sieve into a bowl. Stir in the vanilla extract. Let cool for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the butter, one cube at a time and continue to whisk it into the pastry cream until smooth.
5. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, pressing directly onto the top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming and put in the refrigerator to cool.

For Garnish:

Some sliced strawberries
4 tbsp strawberry jam

1. Warm up the strawberry jam in the microwave oven for 20 seconds. Mix well. Lightly brush the base of the tart shell with some of the jam.
2. Fill the tart shell with pastry cream. Arrange the sliced strawberries around the tart. Brush the balance of the strawberry jam all over the top of the tart. Serve cold.

I love strawberry tarts but have never made one. You have inspired me to do so now.

Many years ago I worked in an office and it was custom on your birthday to buy cakes for everyone. I used to buy individual strawberry tarts from the local baker, there were filled with cream, some sort of gelatine strawberry mixture on top then topped with fresh straws. Nevery been able to find a recipe with the gelatine type mixture. Any ideas of suggestions?

Shereen, ha ha thank you. I am so sad now that the canon went kaput on me. I have to send it in for repair. Don't know when I can get it back.

Ann, thank you. We start seeing quite a bit of strawberries here now.

Debs, I hope you will try this out as it is not difficult to make. The tarts you were talking about, did the cook the strawberries? Or they brush the strawberries with some gelaine mixture for glisten them up?

Shirley, thank you. I am sure you will get the US strawberries pretty soon. We are having spring like weather here on the West Coast.

Copyright Statement

All photographs and written content featured at My Kitchen Snippets are by Gertrude Patane unless otherwise stated. If you are interested in using the contents or photographs please ask for permission first. If you re-post a recipe, please give credit and post a link back to this site. Please do not alter, transform or build upon any aspect of her work without prior consent.

About Me

I was born and raised in Malaysia and now live in Northern California, USA with my wonderful husband Carlos. I love to bake and cook. It is very relaxing and I find my creativity flowing in the kitchen. I creates this blog to record all my cooking and baking adventures and also share my tested recipes with you.
I don’t consider myself an expert but all the recipes here are tried and tested by me, unless noted otherwise.
If you have any suggestions or comments please feel free to do so, If you’re feeling shy or have a question about a recipe, drop me a line instead. My e.mail address is at my profile.
To know more about my life you can always hop over to my other blog.